| Abstrakt: |
Betty Blayton (1937-2016) was an African American artist predominantly recognized as an activist and educator in Harlem beginning in the 1960s. Co-founder of both the Children's Art Carnival and the Studio Museum, she was fundamental in the development of art-based curriculum programs that provided disadvantaged youth in Harlem with access to the arts, as well as spaces where Black art could be exhibited, preserved, and interpreted. However, Blayton was also a prolific and accomplished painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Her contributions to abstract art have been arguably under-represented in art historical and technical literature. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts acquired her 1969 abstract oil and paper on canvas, Consume #2, (diam. 59 in) in 2018. The technical study of this work, prompted by its treatment for display, included visual and microscopic examination, scanning Macro X-ray Fluorescence (MA-XRF), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI). This study complimented by conversations with her family friends, archives as well as her estate, illuminated details of her materials, methods, and artistic process - shedding new light on her art practice as both innovative and conceptually astute. Like so many under-recognized artists of her time, Blayton's imprint is yet to be fully embraced. This study is but one step toward acknowledging her work as integral to the larger narrative of abstraction during the 1970s and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
